Cold War Cultural Diplomacy: Ukrainian Fashion on the Global Stage

This talk examines how Ukrainian fashion became a platform for cultural diplomacy and national identity during the Cold War, focusing on the period from 1945 to 1991. It explores the contributions of designers in Soviet Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora in North America, highlighting their efforts to promote Ukrainian heritage and elevate its global visibility despite ideological and political constraints.

As one of the Soviet Union’s key fashion hubs, the Ukrainian SSR shaped Soviet aesthetics while preserving a distinct national identity. Ukrainian designers participated in global exhibitions, such as Expo 1967 in Montreal, where their work stood out from broader Soviet trends. These events fostered connections between Soviet Ukraine and the diaspora, which used fashion, particularly clothing, as a tool to advocate for an independent Ukraine, raising concerns in Moscow. Fashion shows in Montreal, Los Angeles, and other cities became both cultural exchange and political resistance.

 

Although the diaspora and Ukrainian Soviet designers developed Ukrainian fashion in parallel, they also competed with each other, while at times reinforcing each other’s efforts to promote it globally. By examining these dynamics, this talk contributes to broader discussions on Cold War soft diplomacy, Soviet nationality policies, and global design history, revealing how fashion served as both a tool of cultural preservation and a means of political resistance on the international stage.

 

Olha Korniienko is a Ukrainian historian specializing in the history of fashion and material culture, with a particular focus on Ukraine and the Soviet Union. She holds a Ph.D. in History from the Institute of History of Ukraine at the National Academy of Sciences, with a dissertation titled A Fashion Phenomenon: State Policy and Everyday Life in Ukrainian SSR, 1956–1985. Her research interests include Soviet fashion, Ukrainian culture and identity, the Ukrainian diaspora, visual and material culture, Cold War culture, socialist consumer culture, and late Soviet everyday culture. She is also the founder of the Digital Archive of Ukrainian Fashion History and has experience in organizing fashion exhibitions.